Deformable needle assembly



April22, 1969 M- B COHEN DEFORMABLE NEEDLE ASSEMBLY Filed June 14, 1966 INVENTOR.

#4 7/0 520:! cabana ATI R /S United States Patent 3,439,675 DEFORMABLE NEEDLE ASSEMBLY Martin Bruce Cohen, Maywood, N.J., assignor to Becton Dickinson and Company, Rutherford, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 14, 1966, Ser. No. 557,533 Int. Cl. A61m /32 US. Cl. 128-239 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to an improved needle assembly usable with any one of a number of syringes and, more particularly, to an ophthalmic needle assembly of this type capable of being economically produced and efficiently shaped for the desired use by merely bending it by hand preparatory to use, while being sufliciently low in cost thereby permitting complete disposability of the entire syringe unit after a single use.

Normally, the needle assemblies available for opthalmic use are costly to manufacture because they are delicately constructed and generally fabricated with a special blunt tip and surrounding areas. A needle assembly of any other type could have adverse effects and lead to permanent damage. The special blunt tip of the typical ophthalmic needle assembly has been carefully manufactured to avoid undesirable sharp edges and yet still possess the desired characteristics for use in ophthalmic applications. Certain ophthalmic needle assemblies are preformed into special shapes and curvature to satisfy particular requirements. In the case of prior art needle assemblies, this unfortunately has resulted in increased costs to an extent that it would be unreasonable to dispose of at least the needle assembly after a single use.

It has been proposed by the prior art to construct the needle assembly of a bendable material thereby permitting it to be formed into the desired shape prior to use. However, contamination of an otherwise sterile needle assembly has frequently occurred during the bending process.

With the foregoing in mind, it has been demonstrated that there is a need for a needle assembly for ophthalmic use in which the required special tip may be economically produced, the needle assembly may be constructed of a bendable material capable of being bent by hand without danger of contamination while also being capable of use with many types of syringes, and the resulting needle assembly may be economically produced and efficiently used so as to lend itself to disposability after single use.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a disposable ophthalmic needle assembly which incorporates an inexpensive, unpointed cannula, covered by a plastic sheath and which can be economically manufactured.

Another object of this invention is to produce a needle assembly of this type with a shield whereby the assembly may be bent by hand into the desired shape immediately prior to use and before removal of the shield, thereby eliminating the danger of contamination of the needle assembly during handling and the bending process.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a needle assembly of this type usable with many types of 3,439,675 Patented Apr. 22, 1969 syringes, including a prefilled disposable ophthalmic syringe thereby providing a completely marketable and disposable unit.

With these and other objects in mind, reference is had to the attached drawings of the invention in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the needle assembly of the invention connected to one of a wide variety of available syringes, the combination having particular application as an ophthalmic syringe;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional side view of the needle assembly of FIG. 1 with phantom lines depicting the assembly in the process of bending to the desired shape;

FIG. 3 is a similar enlarged fragmentary sectional side view showing the shape of the cannula and sheath after it has been bent by hand and the shield has been removed;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the needle assembly taken along the plane of line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional end view of the cannula and plastic sheath only taken along the plane of line 5-5 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the needle assembly of the invention mounted on a conventional hub.

In FIG. 1, a needle assembly 20 of this invention is shown attached to one of the many types of syringes with which it may be used. The illustrated exemplary embodiment embraces a by-pass syringe 21 adapted to store and then release the fluid for use. The syringe 21 includes a barrel 22 which contains an elongated by-pass slot 23 cooperable with a forward stopper 24, an open rear end 25 closed by rear plunger 26 and a forward discharge end 27. The chamber 28 between stopper 24 and plunger 26 is adapted to receive the selected medicament.

The illustrated needle assembly 20 is secured to the forward end 27 of the barrel but it should be understood that any one of a number of fixed or detachable connecting structures may be employed in associating the needle assembly 20 with the typical forward reduced boss 29 con taining bore 30. With this in mind, the needle assembly 20 of the illustrated embodiment is comprised of a hollow, tubular cannula 31 having an unpointed end 32 and its entire exposed outer surface covered by a tubular plastic sheath 33. The shank end 40 of the cannula 31 fits into and is held in bore 30 of the reduced cylindrical boss 29 extending forwardly of the barrel 22. The sheath 33 abuts against the tip of the cylindrical extension 29 of the barrel 22. The sheath 33 also extends beyond the unpointed end of the cannula 31, where it forms a rounded closed blunt end 35. A pair of small diametrically opposed holes 36 in the sheath 33 and at right angles to the axis of the cannula 31 are located between the tip of the cannula 31 and the end 35 of the sheath 33. Under these circumstances, the medicament, when released from chamber 28 through by-pass slot 23, will pass through bore 30 into the lumen 41 of the cannula 31 and, finally, through the two small holes 36 in the sheath 33.

The needle assembly 20 is protected by a plastic tubular shield 37. The open rear end of the shield 37 is mounted on the outer surface of the cylindrical boss 29 of the barrel 22. The other end of the shield is closed and defines a substantially hemispherical configuration. By grasping the shield 37 before its removal, the needle assembly 20 may be bent to substantially any desired or prescribed shape typified by the curvature illustrated in FIG. 3. In this connection, any of a variety of metals or plastics may be used for cannula 31 capable of being manually bent and of retaining the induced shape. Naturally, this manual bending is most advantageously accomplished while the shield 37 is still mounted over the needle assembly 20 3 thereby avoiding the danger of contamination of the exposed parts of the needle assembly 20.

In reference to FIG. 6, it can be seen that the needle assembly 20 may be mounted on a conventional type of hub 46 and fixed in position by any common adhesive compound known to the art. The needle assembly 20 with hub 46 may be. associated with a syringe. In this manner, the needle assembly 20 with hub 46 may be independently packaged and used with a variety of difi'erent syringes, ampoules and the like.

The elements of the needle assembly 20 in FIG. 6 correspond to the elements of the needle assembly 20 depicted in FIGS. 1-5. Accordingly, they Will be similarly numbered.

Basically, this invention provides an economically manufactured low-cost needle assembly for ophthalmic use which may be used with many types of syringes, whether prefilled or not, to form a completely disposable ophthalmic syringe assembly. Economy of production allows for complete disposability after single use, whereas, in the past, ophthalmic needle assemblies simply did not lend themselves to disposability mainly because of their high cost. As will be appreciated, the needle assembly of this invention is also efiicient to use in that it may be bent by hand into any desired shape by merely grasping and bending the protective shield 37 covering the associated cannula 31 and sheath 33. In this manner, contamina tion of the needle assembly is prevented because the needle assembly 20 is not required to be touched at any time prior to use to conform it to the desired shape.

Thus, the above-mentioned objects of the invention, among others, are achieved. The range and scope of the invention are defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A disposable needle assembly for ophthalmic use comprising an unpointed metal cannula, having a shank and unpointed end, a plastic sheath covering said cannula, extending from its shank to its unpointed end, said sheath extending beyond the unpointed end terminating in a rounded sealed surface, and at least one hole in the sheath intermediate the unpointed end of the cannula and the rounded sealed end of the sheath thereby providing a needle assembly of low cost construction which is economical to produce, both said cannula and sheath being bendable so as to be bent to a selected configuration, bending means surrounding the needle assembly and adapted to be manually grasped to facilitate bending of the needle assembly to a selected configuration without contaminating the needle assembly, and said cannula and sheath being constructed of such material as to maintain said selected shape after said bending means is released.

2. A needle assembly in accordance with claim 1 wherein the bending means includes a bendable, hollow, cylindrical shield covering the needle assembly, said shield having a rounded sealed end adjacent the rounded sealed end of the needle assembly, the opposite open end of the shield adapted to fit and seal itself to the barrel of the syringe.

3. A needle assembly in accordance with claim 1 wherein said needle assembly is attached to a prefilled by-pass syringe.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,125,887 1/1915 Schimmel 128-221 1,155,848 10/1915 Tyrrell 128-239 XR 2,705,008 3/1955 Melton.

3,094,122 6/ 1963 Gauthier et al 128-221 3,225,763 12/ 1965 Waterman 128-261 XR 3,330,282 7/1967 Visser et al 128-218 XR RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

M. F. MAJESTIC, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

